


Zack Taylor's Guide to Getting the Girl

by andawaywego



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: But also semi-helpful, F/F, Fluff, Kimberly being an oblivious idiot, Language, Zack being kind of a jerk, minimal angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 09:22:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11124306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andawaywego/pseuds/andawaywego
Summary: 'He looks down at his computer and taps a couple of buttons, adjusts the cord connecting it to the projector and then looks up again. “Not a real class, huh?” he asks and--Oh, lord.He made a slideshow.A slideshow titled Trini 101: A Crash Course on How to Hit it and Never Quit It.'Trimberly.





	Zack Taylor's Guide to Getting the Girl

**Author's Note:**

> this is borderline crack, I feel like, but also fun and has super minimal angst so that's good.
> 
> hopefully you like it. I feel like there's not a lot of bro-stuff between Kim and Zack out there so here you go.
> 
> didn't super get a chance to look it over yet so typos and mistakes are mine and I apologize for them in advance.
> 
> enjoy.

..

If you asked her, Kim would probably say that she’s completely and totally fine with how crazy her life has become. She’d say she has no problem with being a superhero or fighting off she-beast aliens in the rubble of a pastry shop.

She would say she’s adjusting pretty well.

Sure, occasionally rock beasts still crop up in town at the most inopportune time--namely, when she’s _sleeping_ or _eating_ or _trying to have a normal life_. But that’s fine.

Just kick their asses and climb back in the bedroom window before your parents notice you’re gone.

And, yeah, okay. Jason being large and in charge means practice every single day for upwards of five hours at a time, but that’s not so bad.

Just listen to his pointers, ignore that smirk Trini gets every time she lands a hit on you, and sneak a frozen bag of peas out of the fridge for your black eye as discreetly as you can when you get home.

So maybe that lecture they’d gotten from their resident, prehistoric alien wall-face on the morality of combat was a bit much. But Billy had snuck her a bag of M&M’s from his pocket halfway through and Trini had stolen all the yellow ones and it was _fine_.

If she had to pick, then the worst part is probably how connected they all are now. How she’ll wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and feel the light tremors in the air, in her muscles, because Trini is having a nightmare five miles away.

But even that’s not so bad.

Trini may lock her bedroom window tight, but Kim knows how to wiggle it open and she knows that it usually only takes someone there to hold her for a little while for her to fall right back asleep.

No, none of that is the problem.

The problem, Kim thinks, is Zackary Taylor.

Zackary Taylor who knows something like three dozen corny pickup lines that he uses incessantly on _all_ of them.

Zackary Taylor who makes jokes about Trini being a top when she pins him during training.

Zackary Taylor who corners her after training one day--catches her by the elbow before she can get to her car. Before she can escape. Corners her and smiles and says, “Kimmy,” in that vaguely annoying voice he always does.

Then says, “So you’re gay.”

Because, wow, like...rude.

And also not true.

“What?” she asks and Zack is smirking.

She tugs her elbow out of his wet hand and crosses her arms over her stomach. Looks over at where Jason, Billy, and Trini are walking. Dripping and laughing.

When she looks back, Zack is still smirking and she’d really enjoy, very much, if she could punch that dumb look off his face. But she doesn’t. Too afraid of Zordon finding out she escalated a fight, or something.

“You’re gay,” he repeats, “And I can prove it.”

Kim fixes him with her best glare, tries to look as menacing as she can manage when her hair is dripping into her eyes. “Taylor, what the hell are you talking about?”

Because she’s not gay. Really.

He crosses his arms, too, and then nods over to where the others are. They’ve stopped walking now and are just standing there, talking. Waiting for Zack and Kim to join them.

“You have a thing for Jason,” he says and she whips her head away from watching them to stare at him, mouth opening just the slightest bit in disbelief. He laughs, uproariously and she’s pretty sure she can see Trini turning her head to look at them.

“I do not have a thing for Jason,” Kim hisses because she _doesn’t_.

She’d thought maybe she was going to or that he was going to _for her_ back when this whole thing started because they shared an awful lot of meaningful looks. But then she shared just as many meaningful looks with Trini, too. More, actually.

But Zack is still smiling like he thinks he’s the most clever person alive. “Okay,” he says slowly, lowly, like he really wants her to listen, “So you don’t mind that he has a thing for Trini then, huh?”

What will strike Kim later about this comment, is how wildly _unfunny_ it is. Because obviously Jason doesn’t have a thing for Trini and obviously she doesn’t have one for him. And _obviously_ Zack is just saying this to make room for his third point, but Kim doesn’t think about it in the moment following this comment.

Instead, her first gut reaction--rather than annoyance, like usual, or disgust--is _jealousy_. And she’s so surprised by it, that she can’t even begin to understand it. So she just says, “Yeah, right,” and rolls her eyes in what she hopes is as spectacular a display of how much Zack is pissing her off as it feels like.

Zack is undeterred. “I thought you didn’t have a thing for Jason.”

“I don’t!” Kim says again and she’s shaking her head a little too hard, trying to look impassive, like she doesn’t care because she isn’t supposed to. She genuinely does not want to be with Jason.

Her eyes move back over to the others, to Trini standing there, hair sticking wet to her forehead, smiling at Billy. Running her fingers through her hair and shaking it backwards and Kim’s eyes drop down the slope of her neck.

Something twists unexpectedly in her chest and suddenly she’s thinking, _Not_ **_Jason_ ** _._

Zack’s eyes widen in what can only be described as absolute _glee_ . He’s grinning so widely that Kim really, _really_ wants to punch him in the chest but isn’t sure if she can manage it just then, so, instead, she settles for closing her eyes, uncrossing her arms, and pressing her fingers to her temples.

Zack lets out this loud, “ _Girl_ ,” making it sound impossibly long.

“Oh my god, Zack,” Kim sighs. “Shut the fuck up.”

Because she doesn’t know what’s happening. She’s thrown off kilter entirely because she suddenly doesn’t know if she’s been feeling this the entire time or if it’s brand new. If _this_ is why she’s constantly drawn to looking back at Trini in Biology. If _this_ is why she’s always pushing to sit next to her at lunch.

If _this_ is why she feels like the world is spinning a little.

“Dude,” she sighs and she covers her face with her hands, looks away.

Zack starts shushing her in this overdramatic played up way, puts an arm around Kim’s shoulder even as she struggles to get away from him. “Don’t worry, baby girl,” he coos and then lets out a pained grunt as she elbows him in the ribs. “It’s okay.”

She struggles some more and the others are looking at them really weird now.

Trini especially.

Kim doesn’t read into it.

“Get off me, Zack,” she says and he releases her, still smiling.

“Don’t be sad, Kimmy,” he says, letting those white teeth shine again. “This is why you have _me._ ”

.

“What you need,” he says the next day, not even waiting for her to close her locker before he says it, “is an _in_.”

He leans back against the metal stylishly and nods at some girls passing by. Kim rolls her eyes.

“An in for what?” she asks, feigning ignorance because that’s gotta be better than actually _listening_ to him.

“For dating Trini.”

He says it so loud that Kim reaches up and smacks him on the back of his head. Hard.

Making him yelp and grab at it, giving her a scandalized look.

“Where did you get the idea that we can talk about this _here_?” she hisses between her teeth.

Zack shrugs and follows her when she starts storming off, gesturing vaguely with his hands to say that he doesn’t know, that he doesn’t have a good answer. As usual.

Kim rolls her eyes and then briefly wonders if they’re actually going to get stuck that way.

“Look, you guys are friends, right?” he asks and she looks over at him, shoulders her way past a giggling group of sophomores and frowns.

“I’d say so,” she says, thinking of all the times she’s crawled in through Trini’s window at night, all those rides home after school or training or getting coffee at the Starbucks the next town over--a poor substitute for Krispy Kreme, for sure, but you do what you can.

Zack nods. “I would too. Problem is, you don’t know how to _date_ her.”

Kim scoffs. “And you do?” she asks.

They’re coming up to her history class now. She can see Billy sitting in the front row adjusting his pencils. He looks up and waves.

Zack adjusts his backpack on his shoulder. “Better than you do.”

This gets him an eyebrow raise and Kim reminds herself over and over that Trini doesn’t like Zack like that. Trini says _Gross_ anytime Zack makes a pass at her. And not in a cute flirty way.

In a genuinely _wow-stop-saying-that_ way.

“So what are you suggesting?”

And there’s that damn smile again.

“I’m gonna tutor you,” he says and it’s probably one of the most frightening things she’s ever heard.

.

“What’s up with you and Zack?” Trini asks when they’re standing in the lunch line together.

She looks perturbed, her lips quirked to the side as she grabs a blue Gatorade from the pile of them and shoots Kim a look that Kim can’t decipher, or doesn’t try to, focused instead on paying for her food.

“What do you mean?” she asks, leading the way to their usual table so that Trini can’t see her face.

She’s trying not to give anything away, but it’s Trini. Trini who seems to understand her better after two months than Amanda did after eleven years. Trini who knows about the off-key shower singing and the pile of old stuffed animals hidden in her old elephant-shaped toy box in her closet.

Trini who knows about that recurring dream she has where all of her teeth fall out.

Trini who, it seems, _doesn’t_ know that Kim is apparently super into her.

Zack wiggles his eyebrows as they sit down and he slides a note over to her that she tries to read discreetly, but she’s pretty sure that Trini, at least, sees it.

It just says, _home ec room at final bell. got us out of training 4 the day_

Which explains why Jason looks vaguely pissed off and says, “Feel better, okay?” when they part ways after lunch.

.

The Home Ec room is empty when Kim slips in at the final bell, skipping past her locker so she doesn’t run into Trini and risk blurting out everything that’s been on her mind the past twenty-four hours since Zack’s initial confrontation.

It looks ominous with the lights out and she’s only ever been in here once before--when her French class had food day and Mr. Bernard made them crepes. Ovens line the room, which is weird enough, but there are a couple of tables in the center, so she sets her bag down on it and looks around.

Wonders where Zack is.

She doesn’t have long to wonder, though, because he’s bursting in the door, pushing an old projector that’s stacked high with papers.

“Sorry,” he says when he sees her. “Snyder was being a dick about letting me borrow this, so I had to wait until he left his room for bus duty.”

“You don’t have permission to have that?”

Kim may have gotten herself into trouble earlier on in the year, but was never the kind of girl before that to do something like this--sneaking out a projector for a dumb joke. She’s not even really sure why Zack has it, but she almost positive he’s going to use it to make fun of her for some reason.

Zack grins. “Be cool, baby.”

He sets it up so that it’s pointing towards the bare wall by the door and then tugs a worn out, school-sanctioned laptop from his backpack--the ones most of the seniors had been trusted with at the start of the year to help with their classes. The ones that usually just ended up being distractions or used for the wrong purpose anyway.

Like it is now, for instance.

Once it’s on, once he has everything set up, he turns around with a positively _pleased_ expression on his face and says, “Ms. Hart, if you would take your seat.”

And the worst part is that Kim _does_. She sits down facing him and crosses her arms huffily. Says, “Why the hell am I even here?” under her breath.

Zack can hear her of course. He says, “Because you wanna bone Trini and you know I’m your best shot at it.”

Kim sputters at the thought, not the implication, because her mind immediately conjures up a familiar image--one she’s fairly positive she’s seen before at night when she’s trying to work through some of the leftover tension and energy of the day--of Trini underneath her, the smooth skin of her neck, the sharp line of her jaw.

The only thing she has to throw is a pen so she chucks it at Zack’s head and he just barely dodges it.

“Woah! Hey!” he cries out, surprised. At least that stupid smirk is gone. “Don’t make me write you up for insubordination!”

“This isn’t a real class, Zack. Stop it. I won’t miss next time.”

He looks down at his computer and taps a couple of buttons, adjusts the cord connecting it to the projector and then looks up again. “Not a real class, huh?” he asks and--

Oh, lord.

He made a slideshow.

A slideshow titled _Trini 101: A Crash Course on How to Hit it and Never Quit It._

Kim slides down in her seat and eyes the door, but she’s pretty positive that, as the only student in the class, it would be pretty obvious if she slipped out.

.

**Lesson One:**

_A Comprehensive Background on the Subject_

_._

Zack has a fucking laser pointer.

He keeps circling the dumbest words with it and smirking and Kim really, really hates him sometimes.

“Trini was born on August 9th, 1999 at 12:31 P.M. in Arlington, Michigan. She weighed twenty-two pounds and seventeen ounces--”

“Oh my god, no. That’s impossible.”

“--and was, at least, forty-seven inches long.”

“You know _nothing_ about babies.”

Zack shoots her a glare, but continues on. Flips to the next slide to reveal a picture of a recently-born Trini who is fussing and red-faced and Kim hates the way it melts her insides.

That stupid laser pointer comes out and Zack uses it to circle the picture--Trini’s triangle of dark hair--for a second, like he’s trying to point something important out instead of just snickering. He looks sheepish when he looks up to catch Kim glaring at him and flips hastily to the next slide.

Another picture of Trini as a baby--this time swaddled and gurgling happily in her crib.

“Where did you get these pictures?” she asks and Zack shrugs. “Did you steal them like you stole the projector?”

He doesn’t answer, which is answer enough anyway.

The next slide just lists the places Trini grew up and Zack mentions various injuries--the scar on her knee from when she fell off her aunt’s exercise bike; that jagged scar running between her left pinky and ring finger that left that side of her hand numb until the power coins activated; the handful of broken ribs from jumping off of trees; that little dimple behind her right ear from the time one of her brother’s accidentally clocked her with his putter during a game of mini golf.

“What does any of this have to do with dating her?” Kim asks finally. Her phone had said 3:52 last time she checked, and that was _before_ Zack confiscated it so she would “pay full attention”. “I know all of this.”

Zack looks up from the wall, where a picture of a seven-year-old Trini in an elaborate green costume at a dance recital is projected. He seems to consider this for a moment and then nods. “Fair point,” he says. “I really just wanted to show off my knowledge.”

Kim rolls her eyes. Feels a headache begin to throb behind them because of the frequency with which she’s been doing that the past hour.

“Okay.” Zack starts flipping through his presentation, making pictures and large, poorly-structured paragraphs pass by on the wall at a dizzying speed. Finally, he settles on--

**Lesson Two:**

_What_ **_Not_ ** _To Do (And Why You’re Probably Failing)_

“Get out a notebook,” he tells her and glares until she obeys. Tosses her pen back. “Take notes.”

.

It’s probably another hour and it really just comes down to this:

  * “Do _not_ bring up the final season of _Scrubs._ Not _ever_.”
  * “If you bring up Idina Menzel, be prepared to discuss her wasted role in _Enchanted_.”
  * “Don’t cry in front of her.”
  * “Don’t squirt ketchup directly onto your fries. She will hit you in the head.”
  * “Don’t sing, whistle, or hum any songs from _High School Musical_. She will sing them nonstop for the following two days and you will want to die.”
  * “If you ever bring up that hippo from the Cincinnati Zoo--Leona?--be prepared to watch about a hundred videos of her in a row.”



And apparently, Kim is failing because:

“You’re too dodgy. Trini needs you to be straight with her. Well...Not _straight_ . But, like, she dumb, okay? If you like her, you’re gonna have to make your interest a _lot_ more obvious. And, I’ve also heard you whistle _Bop to the Top_ like twice and you’ve gotta stop that, too.”

.

By the time he’s done, Kim’s brain hurts and she’s written down about two pages of what she’s pretty sure is _useless_ information.

Zack flips on the lights and she squints. Groans.

Says, “What the hell, dude?” as he starts packing up his things.

“We’ll pick this up tomorrow?” he asks, when they’re wheeling the projector down the empty hallway. “Same time?”

Kim wants to say _no_ because this is dumb and she’s pretty sure it’s a waste of time because there’s no way Trini likes her back. It’s not like she’s inexperienced when it comes to dating and she would know if Trini were interested, right?

She likes to think so, anyway.

Zack slides her phone back into her hand as they near Mr. Snyder’s history classroom and she has three messages--one from Jason, two from Trini.

Jason’s is just asking what their English homework was.

Trini’s is a picture of that baby hippo from the Cincinnati Zoo wearing a box around her torso and a message that says, _she likes cardboard. hope you’re feeling better._

And Zack must have read it over her shoulder because he’s watching her carefully, biting his lip to tamp down a smile. “So,” he starts, “same time tomorrow?”

Kim sighs and lets out a, “Yeah,” with her invisible white flags of surrender.

Wonders if it’s possible that he _does_ know what he’s doing.

But then, of course, he opens the classroom door and shoves the projector inside, letting it roll too quickly and slam into the opposing wall before shutting the door and hightailing it out of there, leaving Kim to jog in order to keep up.

.

There’s an announcement the next morning about abusing school property.

Kim presses her fingers into her temples and ignores the look Trini sends her when she does.

.

**Lesson Three:**

_Ticks, Habits, and Annoying Traits_

.

They’re in Kim’s living room and Kim is pressing an ice pack to her nose, mentally cursing out Jason every time it shifts a little and makes her entire face _ache_. This is what she gets, she supposes, for letting herself get distracted.

In her defense, though, it’s probably Zack’s fault. If Zack hadn’t cornered her and made her realize her feelings, she probably wouldn’t have been staring at Trini when she was _supposed_ to be sparring with Jason. Or, she would have been because she’s pretty sure now that she’s been staring for a long time even if she’s only just now figured out what it means.

Zack has his laptop out but seems to be floundering from the lack of projector, like he hadn’t planned on this. Kim sort of wants to tell him that it _is_ his fault and that if he hadn’t broken the projector yesterday, they could be doing this at school.

But she doesn’t want to spend another afternoon in the home ec room and it’s easier to hide what’s happening in her house anyway.

Because Trini is starting to get suspicious. Trini shot her weird looks all through lunch and biology. Trini eyed her and Zack like she _knew_ and every time Kim caught her eye she felt guilty for reasons she couldn’t really pinpoint.

“Okay,” Zack says, finally looking ready. He slides back on the couch beside Kim and tilts the slideshow towards her. “Do you have your notebook?”

Kim grumbles in response, pretty much automatically and without meaning to or really thinking about it, but the answer is--

“Yes.”

Zack grins.

.

After an hour, her notes read:

 

  * __nail-biter__


  * _punches too hard even as a joke_


  * _sets all alarms to uneven numbers_


  * _whistles incessantly_


  * _curses only in spanish and you gotta know it’s about you when she does_


  * _Disney freak (only annoying when_ ** _Let it Go_** _is stuck in her head)_



 

.

Zack asks her how much of _Hakuna Matata_ she has memorized and seems irrationally angry until she tells him she’ll learn that last 70%.

.

By six o’clock, she has a headache--one of those ones that settles right behind your eyes and makes everything you look at kind of pulse in pain each time your pupils dilate. It gets worse every time Zack talks.

This is not surprising.

She’s been listening to him talk for about two hours and now he’s just staring at her kind of dumbly, like he’s expecting her to do something or say something.

“What?” she asks, her hand automatically flying to her mouth, worried she may have something stuck in her teeth.

Zack shakes his head and then gets up to go to his backpack, sprawled across the floor by the coffee table. He rifles through it for a second and then pulls out a sheet of paper that he hands over to her.

Kim takes it and groans when she sees the title.

**_Completion Exercise_ **

_Fill all blank sections with traits from below._

There are about four full paragraphs that pretty much just describe a normal day in Trini’s life, but the blank spots are meant to be filled with some of the things Zack covered earlier.

“This is the dumbest thing,” she says and actually feels bad for a second when Zack’s face falls.

She imagines him spending his study hall or the night before, even, typing all of this up in preparation and the guilt that descends is immediate and swift. He cares, clearly. Possibly too proactively and Kim could definitely win Trini over on her own. At least, she’s pretty sure she could.

Pretty sure that she doesn’t really _need_ Zack’s help.

But Zack is Trini’s best friend. She’s seen them together--seen the way Trini’s body language opens up when he makes her laugh, when they’re talking lowly during training when someone else is sparring, the way she smiles when Zack chucks notes at her head during detention. Neither of them, Kim thinks, has ever had someone to care about them the way they now care about each other.

And, it’s weird, but it sort of feels like earning Zack’s approval is something that _has_ to happen before Trini will even give her a chance ( _if_ she’ll give her a chance, if Kim’s stomach can stop swirling like that at the mere _thought_ of being given a chance).

So she says, “Fine,” and grabs her pen to fill it out.

.

She gets all of them right (it’s not hard) and Zack hands her a Ziploc bag of mini jawbreakers as a reward.

.

And, okay, she eats most of the bag before her parents even get home, but in all fairness she doesn’t hear them come in until, like, ten.

She’s on the phone with Trini by then, because Trini called to ask for the homework and Kim couldn’t ever ignore her. Couldn’t ignore her if she tried.

Problem is, she’s chewing too loudly--popping those little jawbreakers with her back molars--and she barely hears what Trini is saying even though she _is_ listening. Just maybe so intently that she’s not hearing a word.

“--about you,” is the last thing she catches and it’s right at the end of the handful of candy she’d had in her mouth. It sounds serious and Kim frowns, rolls over onto her stomach and props her chin up with her hand, elbow digging down into her mattress.

She’s trying to replay the conversation in her head so she doesn’t sound like an asshole when Trini inevitably asks for a response, but the invisible little red timer in the corner must run out because Trini barely gives her a second before she says, “Kim?”

“Huh?”

It’s terribly uncouth, but it’s the best she can manage.

“Did you even hear me?”

“Um…” Kim coughs and then swallows to buy herself time.

Either way, it doesn’t matter, because Trini cuts back in with an elongated sigh, like she’s either disappointed or worried or some strange, potent mixture of the two.

“See? This is what I mean. Are you okay? You’ve been...off the past few days. I mean, you let Jason get a hit in earlier and he _never_ gets a hit in.”

That’s true, actually, but Kim thinks it’s only because she uses no-armor days to her benefit and pulls faces so cute during a match that Jason would never _dare_ punch away. And then she usually knees him in the stomach the moment she senses his hesitation.

A dopey, wide-eyed stare as she ogles another girl is definitely not on the top ten list of _Cute Facial Expressions Jason Scott Won’t Hit_.

“No, yeah,” Kim says, which makes no sense and she closes her eyes and then winces at the way it scrunches her still-healing nose. “I’m fine.”

Trini doesn’t seem to believe her, and what it comes down to is that Kim can’t blame her.

She hangs up a few minutes later with a disappointed and quiet, “Goodnight,” that’s still ringing in Kim’s head later when she’s lying in bed, wishing there was a good way to tell Trini what was going on without potentially ruining everything.

.

School is weird. Trini is quiet and doesn’t make eye contact for more than a few seconds at a time.

Zack sends a note at Kim’s head when she’s standing in the lunch line that just says, _the fuck did you do???_

She leaves it unanswered because she doesn’t have anything to say.

.

“Sorry I’m so terrible,” Kim finally manages at the end of Bio. It’s not what she meant to say, nor is it anywhere close to the apology she’s been building in her head since the night before, but it does the trick.

Trini stops listing the ways DNA’s structure relates to its function and frowns. Looks up.

“You’re not terrible.”

It’s nowhere close to _I think I love you_ or _Yeah, I think about you constantly, too_ or _No, Kim, those jeans look great_ but it’s better than the silence they’d been working in prior.

“Sure,” Kim says, realizing too late that it might sound like she’s fishing. “I am, Trin. Face it.”

Trini’s mouth twists up at the side, like she’s trying not to smile. Their eyes meet and Kim hates teen movie cliches, but she’s pretty sure everything stops for a second when they do.

“Make it up to me, then,” Trini tells her.

“How?”

She shrugs and Kim wishes this were easier. That Trini was some dopey boy she could probably make go weak-knee’d with a look or a brush of her fingers. Instead, _she’s_ the one with weak knees and all because of the way Trini lifts her left hand to her mouth, biting nervously at the nail of her index finger.

“Dinner or something?” she suggests as she pulls her hand away. “After training?”

And it’s not anything new--they’ve spent a good number of afternoons dripping onto the upholstery at pretty much every local food place that wasn’t smashed to bits by Goldar--but it feels different somehow.

Kim is helpless to do anything but nod, to say anything other than, “Sounds great.”

.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

It’s not the first time Zack has talked to her like this, but it feels more jarring, somehow, than his usual greeting.

Maybe that’s because his usual greeting is a head nod and a quiet, _‘Sup?_

Kim looks down at her laces, at the dirty ground where she’s kneeling, and looks back up. “Tying my laces?”

Zack doesn’t seem to appreciate that and he shakes his head. Crosses his arms. “You’re going out with Trini? Alone? Do you really think you’re ready for that?”

He must have heard Trini, then, asking Kim if there was anywhere she wanted to go just a few minutes prior.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve been alone with her before,” she tells him, rising up to her feet.

The others are distracted in the corner. Billy preparing his belongings in his waterproof bag before the jump back up and Jason changing his shirt. Trini glances over at Zack and her and frowns and Kim waves a little, which seems to placate her for the moment.

Zack shakes his head and follows her when she turns to grab her things. “That was before I took you under my wing. You know things now.” A dark expression crosses his face and he looks away. “Dark things. _Terrible_ things.”

“Dark things like what? Trini owning three copies of _Frozen_? Pretty sure that doesn’t count.”

Zack gives her a look like he can’t believe how ridiculous _she’s_ being and Kim wants to scoff on principle. “You could mess everything up,” he tells her and she’s used to him being over the top, but, for some reason, this sounds much more serious than she’s used to hearing from him.

She doesn’t get the chance to respond, though, because Trini is next to them in a moment, shoulders braced at the tension she must sense between them. “You ready to go?” she asks, darting her eyes over to Kim.

Kim nods and opens her mouth to say _yes,_ but Zack cuts in.

Zack says, “She sure is. And I’m going with you!”

.

They end up at _Jamba Juice_ because it’s the only intact place casual enough to not have rules about customers being soaked to the bone when they come in.

Kim lets Trini lead them to the front of the line so she can linger back with Zack, so she can hiss, “What are you doing here?” at him without being heard.

“I’m making sure you don’t screw up everything we’re working towards!” he says back, and it’s too loud. Trini hears. Trini stops ordering the _Squeeze of the Day_ to shoot them a confused look.

“How would I even do that?” Kim asks, quietly enough that no one else can hear. “All that info is useless anyway, okay? It’s not gonna do anything.”

Zack looks offended, taken aback. He steps away from her and puts his hand on his chest as if fighting the urge to fan himself from the blow to his ego. “Not gonna do anything, huh?” he asks after a moment and then a mischievous look comes over his face and Kim basically regrets everything she’s ever done wrong.

“What?” she says, trying to put on a brave face. “You going to tell Trini all about it? Dangle it over my head?”

It doesn’t sound like Zack, but he looks hurt enough that it might not be outside the realm of possibility.

“Miss?”

It’s the guy at the register. He looks frazzled and Trini is standing there making a face at them like they’re causing a scene or something.

Kim is busy ordering, technically, but she definitely hears Zack when he says, “Pop Quiz time,” behind her.

.

His rules are simple and he texts them to her when they’re sitting down at one of the tables in the corner, Trini across from her and Zack in a chair to the side.

 

  * __pretend i’m not here__


  * _pretend this is a real date_


  * _steer the conversation only with things u learned so far about her_


  * _have to say “we should do this again sometime” at the end or i’ll  s c r e a m_



 

Kim texts back, _why the actual hell would i listen to you?_ and the answer she gets back is simple.

_i’ll do everything in my power to get u banned from jamba juice if u don’t_

It’s not that the threat is really all that scary or that this stupid mango smoothie is good enough that she couldn’t live the rest of her life without it. It’s really just that Trini is sitting across from her and Trini _suggested_ this--them being alone together, probably at _dinner_ and not _Jamba Juice_ before Zack tagged along--which has got to mean something.

And she’s just really terrified that Zack is going to out what’s been going on.

That it’ll scare Trini off for good and then everything will spiral and it’ll tear the team apart and Rita will come back and kill everyone.

Quite the slippery slope.

“Are you texting each other?”

Speaking of slippery slope.

Trini is staring at her when Kim looks up and she shakes her head, goes to deny it, but Zack starts talking at the same time and it basically sounds like--

“No, we’re--”

“Yep. Sure are.”

And Trini frowns. Looks away. Takes a forlorn sip from her straw.

Zack kicks Kim in shin and she lets out a pained sigh and shoots him a dirty look, then looks back across the table.

“So...Trini,” she starts, floundering already. “How much did you weigh when you were born?”

It’s possible that Zack’s lessons were never going to help her anyway.

It’s also possible, based on the look she gets when she says this, that it’s Zack’s lessons that are going to hammer the final nail into the coffin of _Kim and Trini and What-Might-Have-Been_.

.

She ends up following the fourth rule even though it comes out stilted and awkward because the conversation on the drive back to Trini’s had been made up entirely of Kim just _saying_ some of the lyrics from _Hakuna Matata._

So, when she says, “We should do this again sometime,” Trini looks at her like Zordon has sprouted onto the back of her head like Voldemort or something.

“Um,” Trini says and she looks torn. Throws Zack a weird look in the cramped back seat of Kim’s car. “Yeah.”

She ducks out of the car like it’s on fire and is inside in 0.5 seconds.

Zack leans up and rests his head too close to Kim’s as she watches the front door close behind Trini. “Well, that was terrible,” he says and the next noise he makes is a pained yelp as Kim grabs his ear and twists it.

.

Detention the next morning is awkward.

Trini sits in the corner where she usually does and keeps her head down, occasionally tosses notes at Jason and Billy and ignores the one that Kim sends back to her, even though all it said was, _good morning_.

She’d sent a half-hearted thumbs up back, at least, but Kim wouldn’t necessarily count that as a win.

At noon, she gets up with a stiff back and stretches at her desk as everyone starts filing out. Watches Trini in the back, gathering her things.

She’s staring so intently that Jason nearly gives her a heart attack when he comes up and she jumps and then throws out a punch that he barely swerves out of the way of out of basic instinct.

“Woah,” he says and catches her wrist to stop her arm, looking a little frightened. “You okay?”

He’s got that disappointed parent look on his face, the one that somehow makes her want to confess her each and every sin. She shrugs and tugs her wrist free.

“I’m fine,” she tells him. “You just scared me.”

He doesn’t appear to buy that, but he doesn’t question her further. He just adjusts his bag on his shoulder and says, “I, uh...cancelled training for today. Thought we could all use the day off.”

Kim wonders, since aliens are apparently real, if it’s possible that pod people are, too, because Jason has never cancelled training before. That must mean he’s been taken over by some squiggly alien dude who’s set up shop in his body, right?

“Oh,” she says, coming up short for anything better.

Jason shrugs and an awkward silence envelops them. Zack is watching them from the corner of the room and Billy is waiting at the base of the stairs. Kim tries not to look over her shoulder to where she knows Trini is because there’s no point to drawing more attention to herself.

Finally, Jason says, “Yeah,” then, “See you Monday,” and he practically runs out of the room after Billy.

Trini follows them up the stairs and hardly spares a glance or a wave at Kim who, as always, is left alone with Zackary Taylor.

Zackary Taylor who swings an arm around her shoulder and says, “Guess we have more time for lessons today then.”

.

**Lesson Four:**

_Facial Expressions and Social Cues Explained_

.

It’s basically just more pictures and Kim nearly stops the lesson--nearly gets up from where she’s laying on her bed trying not to fall asleep as Zack sits on the floor with his laptop pointed towards her--to tell him that he should really join the photography club or something.

Because she’s not sure when he took them or _how_ but they’re all actually pretty decent.

Trini scowling at Zordon. Trini with her arms crossed at the lunch table. Trini getting her things out of her locker. Trini laughing at something Billy is saying.

But she doesn’t. She just listens as Zack says, “Okay, you see Trini doing _this_ ,” and he clicks the space bar and a picture of Trini frowning intensely in what appears to be the pit comes across the screen. “What does it mean and what do you do?”

Kim frowns, too, mimicking the face Trini is making. “Hit you for making her mad?” she tries and Zack looks so appalled that she stumbles to excuse herself. “I don’t know, Zack. Jesus. She looks pissed like that about 70% of the time anyway.”

“This particular look is hanger,” he explains, touching his pointer finger to Trini’s chin on the screen. “See the way her eyes are half-lidded? She’s like ten seconds away from passing out from her blood sugar being low _or_ completely annihilating somebody verbally.”

He’s got a point. Kim will give him that, at least.

She’s seen this look before, usually right after practice on sloppy joe days at school because that means she hasn’t eaten since breakfast. The last time she saw it had been right before she’d nearly made Jason cry from snapping at him and then ditching to go home early.

Probably to eat.

“Okay,” she says. “So, I feed her?”

It sounds weird. Like she’s talking about a dog and not about the girl she likes.

But Zack nods and then grapples for his bag, pulling out a cardboard box that he hands over. “Start carrying these,” he tells her.

It’s a box of those chocolate cupcake Luna bars. Kim frowns, but takes it.

“Seriously,” Zack says. “You see that look, you shove one of those in her face-hole. I’m just trying to protect you.”

Kim is maybe on the verge of thanking him or something, though she’s not sure _for what_ , but she never gets the chance because the doorbell is ringing suddenly.

She sighs. “Thank god.”

.

It’s Billy.

Billy who is shifting nervously on her front porch, moving his weight from foot-to-foot and playing with his hands like he has something important to say. He jumps when she opens the door and then again when she says, “Hey, Billy.”

“Um, hi, Kimberly,” he starts and his voice is quivering just a little.

Kim grips the doorknob and moves the door back a little, gesturing that he can enter, but Billy doesn’t seem excited at the prospect. Seems more nervous actually.

“You okay?” she asks finally. “Did something happen?”

She’s picturing downtown on fire, putties smashing into civilians and Trini and Jason in the midst of it all trying to stop it, falling to the ground. Helpless.

But Billy shakes his head and then he _does_ come in. Steps around her and makes his way inside and then bounces on his heels before he whips around.

Before he says, “Are you taking drugs?”

Kim can hear Zack laughing from all the way upstairs.

.

Basically, Trini thinks that Zack has been dealing her drugs or something. It’s ridiculous.

Billy explains it all in the foyer and Kim stands there and listens and fights the urge to call Trini and say, _No, you idiot. I’m not on drugs. I’m learning how to date you._

“She says you’ve been jumpy and flaky lately so she sent me over to ask you if you’re okay, maybe try to do some reconnaissance but I had to ask, Kimberly, because I’m worried about you.”

Now Kim is fighting the urge to hug him.

“I’m not on drugs, Billy,” she says, but she can understand why Trini might think that if the day before was anything to go by.

If Trini really has noticed all these side conversations with Zack and how they keep disappearing together.

Billy seems to deflate at this, like all of his fear is going away. He sighs and says, “Oh, okay. Good.”

Kim nods and they’re quiet. She’s not sure what to say, feels raw and empty and more than a little humiliated.

And then, finally, Billy breaks the silence. “Why are you acting so weird, then? Even Jason says you are.”

And _that’s_ nice.

Kim sighs and throws her hands up in frustration before she takes Billy’s hand and leads him upstairs to where Zack is waiting with the rest of his slideshow.

Zack looks up in surprise when she brings Billy in, but then grins when she says, “Zack has been teaching me how to date Trini, Billy. That’s why I’ve been acting so weird.”

The smile Billy sends her could light up the freakin’ world.

“I’m so happy for you!” he says and it’s brief, but he hugs her, squeezes once, and then lets go. “Can I stay?”

Zack nods happily, probably eager to “prove his knowledge” to somebody other than Kim and it’s not like she’d ever be able to say _no_ to Billy Cranston.

So that’s how Billy ends up auditing the class.

.

“So, if you ever see Trini making this face, what do you do? Billy?”

“Run.”

“Right!”

Billy claps his hands excitedly from the bean bag beside Kim’s bed and she shakes her head, flipping Zack off when he shoots her a disappointed look.

The face in question is an extreme close-up of one of Trini’s patented scowls and Kim is a little frightened (and just the tiniest bit turned on) by it. She’s not certain how Zack even got a picture of it, but she's almost afraid to ask because she's pretty sure he befell bodily harm moments afterwards.

Like, for sure.

“Kinda seems like Billy could potentially be better at dating Trini than you, Kim,” Zack says next and if taking that picture hadn’t gotten him socked, that comment is about to.

“I won't though, Kim,” Billy cuts in. “No worries.”

He grins and Kim has to smile back and say, “Thanks, Billy.”

He nods seriously.

Zack has his arms crossed up by her dresser and she rolls her eyes when he turns dramatically and leans down, bracing his arms against the edge so that he can stare at his own reflection like a Bond villain.

“What now?” she asks and he flips around so quickly she scoots back away from him.

“My teaching methods just aren't getting through to you, Hart,” he says and she shakes her head, but Billy is nodding as if any of this bears any sort of weight.

She bites her tongue around the urge to say, _That's because your “teaching methods” are nonsense._

And then she wishes she had because he grins and says, “I think we need to partake in a round of active role play.”

Because, that sounds bad, doesn't it?

.

It _is_ bad, it turns out.

Because active role play involves going outside--traveling to the mall where Zack says, “Okay, Billy, you be Trini, okay? Kim, you be you. Action!”

Billy takes the role a little too seriously and walks with his hands shoved deep into his pockets and feigns a look of moderate disinterest as they travel towards the food court.

Kim isn't sure what she's supposed to do here, so she just sort of follows closely behind him. Zack gestures at her emphatically so she clears her throats and says, “So…”

But then Zack cuts in and says, “Time! Wrong. So wrong.”

Billy stops walking and so does Kim and they just sort of wait for Zack to continue, even though everything that he's said so far--all four words--has been nonsense.

“Hold her hand. Ask about her day. Act like you actually like her,” he tells her and Kim looks at Billy, who shrugs as if giving her permission to hold his hand, need be.

They go back to it.

Kim holds Billy’s hand and at the end of a really stilted conversation that would _never_ be so weird in real life, Zack gives her a D minus.

When it's Billy’s turn, when Kim is acting faux huffy and talking a little raspier than she normally does and Billy is flouncing around in a way she _definitely_ doesn't, Zack gives him an _A._

Which is ridiculous of course, because that's not what "auditing" means, but Zack just tells her to stop being a sore loser.

.

When it's over, Billy leaves and promises to relay everything but the actual specifics to Jason and Trini, which leaves Kim on edge for the remainder of her Saturday night.

Because Billy had accidentally cracked under the pressure of just coming over to ask her a couple questions about her potential drug use. It's possible he’ll do the same with the actual truth when he goes to talk to Trini.

She lies in bed the rest of the evening, lets her room get dark as the sun goes down instead of getting up to turn on a lamp. Thinks she hears her phone buzz a couple of times before it falls quiet for good around eight.

Her notebook is sitting at the foot of her bed, right there on the floor, and she's fighting herself because she wants to pull it out and look over her notes. Wants to study like there's an actual final coming up when there isn't, but it's also possible that she simply wants to think about Trini.

Wants an excuse to do so.

Which is silly, she can think about whatever she wants to think about. She shouldn't need permission.

It's not like she has to look over her notes to know what Trini’s smile looks like, what it feels like as it heats up her skin. She doesn't need a piece of paper to remind her of her lavender body wash and the way Kim can smell it when they're training, when Trini is squaring up behind her, their shoulders brushing.

She doesn't need a pointless class taught by Zackary Taylor of all people to tell her what she knows--that she's no good for Trini.

That she doesn't stand a chance.

.

A knock wakes her up.

She’d been dreaming. She's not certain immediately of what, only that Zack had been there with one of those yard sticks, scrawling illegible words on a chalkboard and laughing as Kim tried to read it.

Her room is pitch black, the faint sound of air moving through her vents making her feel lightheaded and dizzied.

Another knock comes moments later and she finally looks over to where it's coming from--the window.

Zack maybe, come to make her dream reality.

But, no.

It’s Trini.

Trini hunched over on the side of the roof right by the window, smiling in this half-sheepish way when Kim opens the window.

“Hi,” she says nonchalantly, like she's _not_ dangling sort of precariously off the edge of a house.

“Get in here,” Kim demands, reaching out a hand that Trini clasps tightly in hers and uses to tug herself in.

Kim’s room immediately feels wrong with Trini inside of it--too small or too juvenile somehow, as if Kim is mildly terrified of Trini looking around and hating every item on display in there.

Think, perhaps, that all those pictures she keeps of the five of them by her vanity are cheesy or pointless.

“Sorry,” Trini says and Kim thinks _she’s_ the one who says it at first, because that makes more sense.

Because--

“Why are _you_ sorry?”

Trini stuffs her hands into the pockets of her jeans and shuffles her feet back until the backs of her legs are brushing against the windowsill. She shrugs. “I don’t know.”

There’s this itching underneath Kim’s skin and she thinks of Billy in the food court, eating a corn dog across from her and describing his day as, _I dunno, boring,_ in this weird voice that was probably meant to sound like Trini. She thinks of Zack gesturing at her emphatically until she finally reached across the table and grabbed Billy’s hand.

That move was the only reason she hadn’t failed entirely, apparently.

She tries it then and it’s different with Trini than it had been with Billy, but so much better. There’s not much space between them anyway because Kim hadn’t backed up after helping Trini inside, so she barely has to cross any distance to pull one of Trini’s hands out of her pocket and take it in her own.

The change is immediate. Trini looks overwhelmed the moment their skin touches, as if guilty or vulnerable. Kim doesn’t have the words to make the difference, but Trini seems to have some.

She says, “I feel like things have been weird between us and that it’s my fault or something.”

She throws the _or something_ in there after a moment’s hesitation, trying to pass off the emotion of the moment. Kim has a note about that in her notebook somewhere, having written it down despite already having known it.

Her first instinct is to lie, to reassure. To say, _It’s fine, things are fine. They’re not weird at all._

But even _she’s_ not that good of a liar. And it’s been a week since that day at the cliff. A week since Zack grabbed her by the elbow and made her look at what was happening between them, what she’s been heading towards with Trini for months now. Made her look because she was always going to ignore it, to pass it off and make it seem less than what it is in order to feel more secure, more sure-footed.

Because facing this head on means coming to terms with the idea that Trini might be _it_ for her. This could be _it_. She might not ever want someone else after this.

And that’s pretty scary when you’re eighteen.

“It’s _my_ fault,” Kim cuts in, in the interest of facing things head on.

Trini looks startled by this, by her honesty. She opens and closes her mouth a couple of times and then says, “What?”

And then Kim remembers that Trini might have briefly believed she was on drugs.

“Not because...I’m not taking drugs--”

Trini’s eyes widen impossibly further, but she doesn’t pull her hand away.

“--and, wow, that sounds like I am, huh? But I’m not, I just…”

She briefly considers coming clean. Pulling out that damn notebook and laying the whole thing on the line, but it seems like a lot. Too much, maybe, for a Saturday night.

What she settles with is, “You just...You make me an idiot, I guess, sometimes and I sorta lose my cool around you and end up spazzing and freaking you out.”

Trini’s face stays neutral for maybe three seconds and then she smiles, astonished again.

Kim isn’t really expecting anything other than a firm rejection, but what she gets is, “Yeah, I know the feeling,” and Trini’s fingers squeezing her own.

Which feels a lot better than a _D-_ for sure.

.

“I don’t need your help anymore.”

There are probably better ways of phrasing that--ways that won’t end up breaking Zack’s fragile ego--but it’s too early on a Monday morning for Kim to really think of any of them.

It seems to work, though. Zack closes his locker immediately and looks over at her with an eyebrow quirked. “That’s what Daniel-san said to Mr. Miyagi and he turned out to be a liar.”

Kim rolls her eyes, clutches her books to her chest, and looks away just in time for Zack to turn serious.

“What do you mean? With the Trini thing?” He seems to understand immediately after practically _shouting_ it, that it may get him whacked, so he lowers his voice and repeats it. Whispers, “The Trini thing?” again.

She nods and looks around. No one seems to be paying them any mind though and they still have about five minutes before the final bell rings.

“Why not?” is Zack’s next question, voiced with actual, audible concern.

“Because,” she starts, “I did just fine with her Saturday night.”

“You were alone with her when I specifically told you _not_ to be?”

Now _that_ does get him whacked, right in the arm so that he winces and rubs the spot sorely, cursing under his breath.

“Yes, I was,” Kim says quietly, harshly. “And it was fine. I did way better the moment I got _you_ out of my head. I think the only reason I’ve been having issues this past week is because I listened to you.”

For once, Zack looks serious and more than a little ashamed. He glances away like he can’t even bring himself to meet her eyes. She briefly feels guilty and then remembers that weird car ride home after _Jamba Juice_ the other day and the fact that she’d _actually_ tried to make legitimate conversation about Sharpay from _High School Musical_.

“Why do you look so guilty?” Kim asks, frowning and tilting her head.

Zack looks around and then says, “You’d never, like, actually have the guts to full out murder me in the middle of the hallway, right?”

The glare she fixes him with must scare him--which, _good_ \--because he swallows and then kicks his sneaker into the bottom row of lockers. Looks away.

Says, “Look, I didn’t mean to ruin your chances or anything. I really _do_ think you guys’ll be good together. I just--”

“You just _what_?”

Her teeth are clamped together so hard she’s briefly concerned she might crack some of them, anger bubbling up underneath her skin in anticipation.

Zack frowns. Swallows again. Finally meets her eyes. “I don’t want you to bail, okay?”

And this stops Kim cold. Right there in the middle of the hallway. The anger dissipates just as rapidly as it had come and then she’s just standing there, listening to him, hearing him out.

“Trini,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, “She can be a handful, okay? She’s hot-headed and stubborn and...crazy.” He chuckles a bit at the term of endearment and Kim can’t help but smile--feels her lips turn up of their own accord. “And I needed you to know about all that stuff--the Disney, the mood swings. I needed you to...I don’t know be in a situation with her where things were weird and kind of awful to see if you’d keep fighting for her. Because...I think you might be the thing that either makes or breaks her, Kim, and that’s really scary.”

He sighs and drops his arm.

“I don’t want to lose her if you decide to hit the trail over one of those things one day. I...I care about her, okay? I’m just looking out for her.”

It’s only eight o’clock and already Kim’s emotions have been all over the place. First nervousness, then rage, and now affection rushing over her in a tidal wave that has her pulling Zackary Taylor down into a hug before she can weigh the consequences of such a gesture.

He hugs her back, at least.

“Thank you for taking care of her,” she says before pulling away and Zack nods. “But, can you just trust me on this one? Please?”

He nods again. More sure this time.

And then there’s that stupid grin again.

“I’m still not gay, you know,” she says a minute later when they’re walking down the hall together. “Stupid, crazy into Trini, maybe, but not necessarily gay.”

Zack is still grinning. He loops an arm around her shoulder. “You keep telling yourself that, Kimmy. You should just kiss her. Seriously. Get this whole thing over with.”

“Are you suggesting sexual assault?” she asks and when she shoulders him into the locker, he doesn’t even fight back. He just laughs so hard that she can’t help but join in.

.

“Yeah, that makes way more sense,” is what Jason says when she fills him in on the way to towards the cliffs that afternoon. “I told Trini that drugs don’t usually resemble candy. _And_ that you’d never be dumb enough to have a bag _full_ of them in your backpack.”

He looks relieved though, sigh happily with his hands buried in his jacket pocket as they follow the others, watch Zack try to give Trini a noogie and end up flat on his ass up ahead.

It takes her a second, as distracted as she is by the raucous laugh Trini belts out, sending back to where she’s walking on the back of the breeze, to realize what’s been said.

“Wait,” she starts, thinking of those stupid mini-jawbreakers Zack gave her that she’s been carrying in the front pouch to eat during class. “You went through my backpack?”

Jason must not have a good answer because he’s shrugging and then running away from her, past the others, and diving off the cliff to avoid it.

“What did you do to him?” Trini asks, lingering back so Kim can catch up.

Kim shakes her head because the only other option is to chastise Trini for the invasion of privacy and it’s Trini, this time, that drags them both off the edge of the cliff and down into the water, laughing the whole way.

.

There were a lot better ways for Trini to find out, Kim supposes, but it comes down to timing, in the end.

They’re studying in her living room, her and Trini sprawled across the floor while Jason and Billy lounge on the couch, Zack snoring distantly in Kim’s dad’s La-Z-Boy in the corner. Billy asks Kim for a piece of paper and she has her notebook open, rips out a page to hand to him. The page that just so happens to be right in front of her notes.

Her notes on Trini.

Her notes on Trini that Trini just so happens to see.

“What’s that?” she asks and Kim hesitates.

That’s the problem here. She should be grabbing that notebook and putting it completely out of reach. Covering her tracks. Yelling, _Nothing!_ and then maybe running just for good measure.

But she’s torn between complete fear and absolute shock. This wasn’t meant to go like this.

Here she is sitting in the scenario she’d been imagining since that first class with Zack.

And then it gets about ten times worse. Trini pulls the notebook over and starts looking at it. Starts _reading_ it and Jason and Billy are paying attention now. Billy fixing Kim with an apologetic look, Jason looking nauseated on her behalf.

Zack has stopped snoring, too. Perhaps startled into consciousness by the air being sucked out of the room.

“Um,” Kim starts, too late. “It’s nothing.”

“Are these notes on me?” Her face is turned down, elbows planted into the rug beneath her and Kim wants to see her, but just as equally _doesn’t,_ too.

“No?”

“They’re notes on me!” Billy pipes in from behind them and Trini lifts her head to look at him.

“Oh, so you go by Trini, too, and--” She looks down and reads from the page, “--are terrified of Michael Jackson’s _Thriller_?”

Billy blinks once. Twice.

Quirks his lips to the side and then says, “Yes.”

Trini shakes her head and then looks back at Kim. Kim who has scrambled back into a seating position and is only a second or two away from disappearing. From just completely bailing and possibly never returning.

Ever, ever again.

“What are these, Kimberly?”

And... _yikes_.

 _Kimberly_.

She pulled out all three syllables.

“They’re--”

She barely even gets _that_ out, though, because she’s spluttering and has to swallow, has to cough into her fist.

“See, Kim, this is why I told you to just kiss her,” Zack pipes in from the corner, as if this whole thing couldn’t get _any_ worse. “Would have been a lot easier to explain to her than me teaching you how to date her.”

You could hear a pin drop.

Even if you didn’t have superhero hearing.

Trini and Kim just stare at each other and then Jason sniffles and moves around on the couch like he’s trying to break the tension. It doesn’t work.

“Zack’s been teaching you how to date me? Is that what you two have been up to?”

There it is. The million dollar question.

Kim presses her palms into the rough treads of the rug. “Um...sort of.”

“See, I told you they weren’t hooking up,” Jason says and Kim makes a face at him.

“Yep. And that was candy, Trini,” Billy says. “Not drugs. Zack gave me some, too!”

Zack gets to his feet and crosses the room to stand overtop of them, but Trini still doesn’t break eye contact. Not until he says, “This would be the part where you kiss her, Kimmy.”

Which, _no._ It’s _wouldn’t be_.

And then Trini is on her feet in an instant, standing there awkwardly for a second until she manages to say, “Could we maybe _talk_?”

Kim nods dumbly. Scrambles to her feet.

Shoves into Zack’s shoulder roughly on her way out of the room.

.

Things are just as weird and tense outside, standing in the cool grass of Kim’s backyard, watching the sun disappear behind the trees, as they were inside. They’re close and Trini is facing her with her body, but her head is turned away, towards the back of the property line.

Kim shifts awkwardly in front of her and keeps moving her hands--putting them in her pockets only to yank them back out, crossing her arms over her stomach, cracking her knuckles so hard it hurts. Her heart thumps loudly up her neck, in her ears.

She waits.

“So, what?” Trini says finally after what feels like forever, her head still turned away. “You want to date me?”

It’s not even _close_ to romantic, but Kim supposes that it’s because it’s not a proposition. Just a genuine question asked in order to make something a little more clear.

“Yeah,” Kim answers, just barely forfeiting the ‘um’ she nearly lets be put in front of it.

“Oh.” Trini nods and turns to look at her, then darts her eyes quickly away. “Cool. I, uh...I wouldn’t be opposed, I guess. Since we’re bringing it up.”

And the thing is, Kim sort of knew that already. Sure, she was terrified at the idea of the opposite, but there was no way this thing went one-way. Not completely.

Still, the smile that she feels break out across her face is embarrassing and more than a little humiliating. She briefly prays that Trini won’t see it and then Trini does anyway and it’s almost like she doesn’t care anymore.

The tension immediately lifted, miraculously gone.

“Yeah?”

“You gonna say something other than ‘yeah’?” But Trini is grinning. Trini is just as relieved as she is.

“Yeah,” Kim says again, just to make Trini laugh, just to watch her throw her head back a little, wild and untamed and built to love.

“He didn’t try to teach you kissing, right?”

This question comes a second or two later, as the sky darkens further around them and Kim feels the evening breeze blow through her bones, ready to knock her off her shaking feet.

She laughs and scrunches her nose in disgust. “Gross. No.”

And Trini smiles. Says, “Okay, good. Just checking.”

They stand there, too far apart, and Kim thinks this whole thing--this whole dance they’ve been doing for _months_ \--has really gone on too long already. So she takes a step forward, pulls one of Trini’s hands away from her side and holds it as gently as she can manage between her fingers.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to learning, though,” she tries, and Trini looks down at where they’re touching as she says it, maybe even swallows nervously. Kim knows the feeling. “Just, maybe not from him? Since we’re bringing it up.”

It’s maybe seconds after Trini looks up again that Kim feels the tentative press of lips on her own as Trini rocks up onto her toes to get a better angle.

Maybe the breeze won’t knock her over after all. Maybe _this_ will.

Kim kisses back immediately, wraps her arms around Trini’s waist to bring her close and lets out this soft, breathy sigh as Trini’s hand slide up around her shoulders gently. It’s soft, slow, but with a touch of heady longing, too.

Kim, it would seem, was not the only one waiting for this.

When they pull apart, Trini’s lips brush gently across the curve of Kim’s chin and she looks like she’s about to say something, but she doesn’t get the chance.

Because Zack is yelling out the back door, “Yes! My young padawan! I taught you well! Get some ass!”

Kim can hear Billy scolding him for the expletive, Jason laughing in this meekly flustered way and Trini closes her eyes, lets out a sigh, and then flips all three of them off.

“I hate him so much,” she mutters and Kim is laughing too, adjusting her arms around Trini’s waist so they can look at each other properly.

“No, you don’t,” she says. It’s just the truth.

Trini doesn’t necessarily deny it, but neither does she confirm it.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. They’re already kissing again, ignoring the boys’ hooting behind them as the wind shifts the leaves in the distance, the grass brushing up around their feet.

.

Zack gives her a diploma. Drops it in her locker sometime when she’s not there to catch him.

It’s printed on bright yellow paper and he even signed the bottom corner. On the back is a lewd, anatomically incorrect drawing of what she thinks is supposed to be her and Trini, but can’t actually be sure until she sees the note right next to it.

_hmu when ur ready to get a masters in scissoring_

Trini laughs at it later, her back pressed into Kim’s chest in her bed. Says, “Yeah, maybe you should,” when she sees the note on the back.

Kim considers throwing it away, but ends up sticking it in her dresser drawer instead.

.

Okay, so maybe Zack _isn’t_ a problem.

Kim’s practically obligated to say that the stupid classes worked out in a couple of ways.

Like when she spends the night curled up in Trini’s bed or the night she invites Trini over for dinner and says, “This is Trini, my girlfriend,” to her parents who’d known her already, but not like this. Who smile and welcome her into the family with open arms that Trini doesn’t quite know how to fall into.

He takes 80% of the credit and sends the rest of the slideshow he made to Kim in an email he titles _may come in handy someday ;)_.

Kim’s learning to take it all with a grain of salt and if you asked her, she’d probably have to say that she’s completely and totally fine with that.

...

 

**Author's Note:**

> shamelessly inspired by the episode Robin 101 in HiMYM. 
> 
> references to lots of stuff, including, but not limited to: Scrubs, Enchanted, Disney, High School Musical, Thriller, Karate Kid, and many more.
> 
> come talk to me on tumblr at housewithoutwindows.


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